


Quieter, and Turned All the Way Down

by DaintyRoses



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Artist Steve Rogers, M/M, Pre-Slash, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers-centric, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony doesn't actually speak much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-30 23:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6445960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaintyRoses/pseuds/DaintyRoses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've come a long way from where they started. From reluctant teammates to vitrolic acquantainces to friends to best friends. Steve's thoughts on Tony have varied and he's got colored charcoal to prove it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quieter, and Turned All the Way Down

 

Steve often berated himself for watching Tony so intently; he couldn’t help it, they had had quite the rocky start upon first meeting, but then progressed to taking vicious but civilized shots at one another. Somewhere along the way, around Tony and Pepper’s breakup they didn’t seem to loathe each other so much. The snarking became good-natured, the insults teasing. Steve would go so far as to say that he and Tony are best friends now. If the rest of the Avengers were shocked by their growing friendship, it was nothing compared to the breakdown Tony had.

Being the idiot genius that he is, Tony seemed to realize that he and Steve not only willingly spent time with each other, but engineered events for it to happen. Tony’s A+ solution: for a week, lock himself in his lab and avoid Steve as well as any nosy Avenging housemates; or at least, Steve thinks that was his plan— he gave the dummy 3 days of brooding until JARVIS admitted him into the lab following the threat to ram the door to the ground:

_Steve watched Tony spewed indignant bullshit at him until the genius (dummy) ran out of steam. “So… you done avoiding me?” he leaned against a tall rod with wires wrapped around it._

_Tony stiffened immediately, “I’m not avoiding anyone, I’ve just got a lot of things to do, gadgets to create, you know the schtick, Steven.”_

_Steve walked forward, an amused swagger in his gait “You bet I do, cupcake. The ‘oh-no-a-human-likes-my-company-run-for-cover’ schtick? It’s one I’m quite familiar with although, I must admit, I’m honored to have you implement it on me.” By this time, he and Tony stood less than a foot away from each other._

_Tony frowned, “I don’t like sassy you.”_

_Steve frowned too “Pity.”_

_They stood watching each for a few minutes before one of them cracked (guess who). Tony sighed, “Alright, I’m done pouting. Let’s grab pizza.”_

_Steve broke into a large grin, shuffling closer to loop his arm around Tony’s muscular shoulders, “Oh no, sunshine, you have no say in food choice— we’re getting Indian.” The two walked towards the door,_

_“But Indian makes my stomach mad at me!”_

_“You deserve it.”_

 

Strangely, in Steve’s head, that situation marked the switch from close friends to best friends. Except, Steve wasn’t so sure that, that was all he wanted. He knew too much about the man, too well what his tiny facial gestures meant, and how expressive his eyes really were behind all the tinted shades. Take, for example, his personality. It wasn’t as black and white as it seemed, not even to those close to him, Steve had discovered. In order, here is what Steve had thought:

  1. Stark, as he was spitefully called in Steve’s mind, was a pompous know-it-all that drank, smoked, and fucked everything that passed into his eyesight.                               

Note: Steve still winces at the uncharacteristic hostility he felt for the man. But he proposes that maybe the feelings were there from the beginning and manifested themselves in harsh thoughts and comments?

  2. Stark is not a complete prick. A prick couldn’t cry himself to sleep over losing a beautiful woman, could he?
  3. Tony is obnoxious and loud and funny and warm and exasperating in the best of ways and why did he hate him so much in the first place?
  4. That outward persona he uses with the public and sometimes tracks back in to the tower like mud on shoes with his housemates (his friends) is not Tony. Steve doesn’t know who exactly that person is but Tony is good and observant and caring and all things good trapped in a body of self-hate
  5. Steve realizes as he stares at the blank canvas sitting on the easel that, that outward persona is Tony. It’s Tony to a ridiculously amplified degree. Tony is suave and slick and schmoozy and dripping in sarcastic charm like his public self suggests; only, Steve’s Tony, he’s lively rather than obnoxious and dry rather than humorously dark but the other things, the Stark Aesthetic ™ is still Tony.



Steve takes this idea and runs with it. He sorts the new colored charcoal pencils Tony bought him uses the black charcoal pencil to draw dark, bold lines that create 5 spaces before setting his countdown for 4:13 pm. It is currently 11:09 am and Steve knows he is pushing the serum, trying to finish this piece in 5 hours but his motivation is compelling need for a certain engineer to see the finished product.

When he’s finished he sits back to evaluate all the drawings and trace his mental process during their composition. The first section is a drawing of Tony that is almost crude. It greatly points out his handsomeness but in the same stroke accentuates things like the sharpness of his goatee, the perfection of his cocked brow and the shininess of his gelled hair to add an element of glibness to his appearance. Steve had pressed in deep with the charcoal to capitalize on the mean twist his perked mouth had. He had a very hard time trying to pin down the dark whiskey color of Tony’s soul-eating eyes.

The second section has Tony looking to side, somewhere the viewer will never see. Only half his face is visible but the profile shows slight bags over weary, distant eyes. His hair is gelled and tastefully styled to near perfection except the several lanky strands that curl into his face.

The third section has Tony mid-laugh; his handsome, perfect face still carries that look of condescending amusement but now it is a softer facial expression, teasing as opposed to mocking with hands crossed protectively across his torso.

The fourth section is not like the others. For one, the designer clothes and stylish hair are non-existent. Instead, he wears an old band t-shirt with grown-in facial hair disrupting the art usually on the lower half of his face. Grease stains his attractive golden complexion and… he is smiling in this drawing. Granted the first photo is also of him smiling this one is different in that the smile is quiet and dammit, almost shy. Steve takes a break to calm his speeding heartbeat.

The fifth space… Steve stares at for a long time before drawing a small pair of cuff-links and a volume turned towards ‘min’.

**5:17 pm.**

Steve patiently knocks for the third time on the lab door. Tony hasn’t had any meltdowns related to friend-intimacy that Steve knows of so he figures Tony probably just can’t hear him over his loud, blasting music.

Steve sighs, put out already as he grips the art piece tightly.

“JARVIS?”

“Yes Captain Rogers, how may I assist you today?”

Steve sighs again, “I think you very well know the answer to that.”

“Certainly, Captain.”

Silence for 45 seconds before Steve can hear Tony yelling, his voice getting closer as he nears the door “Hey! J, what happened to Kelis? I need to know how her milkshakes bring the boys to the-“ The door swings open and Steve can’t help himself by filling in “Lab?” Tony is staring at him uncomprehendingly before nodding slowly as if understanding that Steve is an unpredictable creature.

Tony moves to take his seat surrounded by wires and breadboards before turning expectantly to Steve. “So, Capsicle, to what do I owe the honor?”

“I… wanted to show you something.” Steve grips the canvas with sweaty (he can still sweat? How?) palms. Tony claps his hands and turns fully to his guest.

Steve inhales deeply and turns the piece around to show Tony. He watches all the emotions flit across Tony’s face as he studies every drawn variation of himself. His gaze lands on the last drawing and furrows his brow. He turns to Steve and says “I’m not entirely sure what you want me to say but I am curious about the last drawing.”

Steve smiled, glad he asked exactly what the super soldier had been banking on. “This piece represents how I saw you at different points of our relationship-“ Steve watches Tony flinch at the ‘r word’ and ignores it, rambling forward “- the first drawing is my initial thoughts of you: loud, irreverent, handsome but superficial, genius but arrogant.” Tony refuses to meet his eye after that particular explanation and Steve just wants to stalk forward and tell him how that is no longer true but he soldiers on with his speech “the second drawing is… after you and Pepper…” he trails off, not knowing how to continue before revving up again, “the third drawing is after we became friends; you were still loud and ridiculous but it made me and all the Avengers so, so fond of you. Once I realized that you wear sarcasm like a cape but drop it whenever one of us.. or anyone really, needs you.” Tony’s eyes slowly slide from the drawing to Steve’s face and the soldier fights to keep the rising blush off his face.

“The fourth one was my thoughts on you with absolute certainty for a while. I strongly believed that the outside mask was just that, a mask. It was completely unrelated to the Tony that I know and love-“ Tony’s eyes widen and Steve can see now that in getting the right color, a small dash of green was needed—oh well “-and a strategic defense against the media and papps and all other naysayers. The real Tony, I supposed, was just a slightly grimy mechanic that laughed often but shyly” “The last section,” Steve points to the cuff-links and volume knob, “is a drawing to say that the previous idea wasn’t necessarily right either.”

Steve pauses, taking in the way Tony sits, completely engrossed in his words. The engineer hasn’t tried to interrupt him once and that, in itself, is reason for amusement and slight worry. “The last drawing says you aren’t a smug bastard with more ego than genius, you aren’t sad human being that can’t function without a beautiful partner, you certainly aren’t all obnoxiousness and migraine-inducing humor, but you aren’t a shrinking violet hiding behind a bright ass daffodil either.”

Steve stops, baiting the question in front of Tony and waiting for him to ask it. He isn’t disappointed.

“I guess,” Tony chuckles, his voice raspy and almost painful, “the obvious question to ask is what am I then, if not, any of those things?”

Steve shrugs and grips Tony’s chin before tilting it up and smearing leftover charcoal onto his jaw “Tony Stark: Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist…only quieter, and turned all the way down.”

**Author's Note:**

> Super Steve-centric, yeah? Due to this, I challenge someone (anyone) to write a parallel fic focusing on Tony’s POV. Happy Civil War-ing!


End file.
